


Got Your Back

by sneakronicity



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Community: cottoncandy_bingo, Gen, Partnership
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-27
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-22 16:14:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/611739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sneakronicity/pseuds/sneakronicity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being a spy isn't easy after the world has seen your face, but luckily Clint Barton has an idea.  Yes, I said luckily.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Got Your Back

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LilyBee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilyBee/gifts).



> Written for my cottoncandy_bingo wildcard spot. Marvel owns all except my headcanon. Safe for non-shippers but there if you squint.

She fired the shots unflinchingly in quick succession, not stopping until the entire clip had been unloaded.  Every one rang true, every one hit the paper target dead in the centre of the chest until they left a gaping hole.  It wasn’t enough, and she was already reloading when the low whistle sounded behind her.  
  
“I think we can call this one, Nat.  They don’t get any deader than that,” her partner, Clint Barton, said as he strolled into the room behind her.  
  
“His head is still attached,” Natasha Romanoff replied without inflection, snapping the fresh clip into her gun.  Clint barely had time to comically cover his ears before she unloaded again.  This time the bullets tore a hole through the outline’s head, right between where its eyes would be if it were human.  
  
“Are you done yet?” her partner asked when silence reigned again.  She pulled another clip from her back pocket but his hand caught her wrist before she could load it.  “I heard about the mission,” he cut in quickly causing her whole body to stiffen.  “Just some bad luck.  The next one’ll be better.”  
  
“Bad luck?” she scoffed, finally turning to look at him.  She snatched her arm from his grasp and set aside her gun, angrily pulling off the safety glasses and hearing protection the range required.  “I was made, Clint.  Two and a half months I put into that job and some grainy cell phone picture ruined the whole thing!”  
  
“SHIELD tried to eliminate all the photos of us from that day but it’s not an easy task when pretty much everything has a camera in it now,” he replied, stuffing his hands into his pockets but not moving away.  
  
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?  I’m a spy.  How am I supposed to do my job when any mark can find a photograph of me suited up fighting aliens with Captain America?” Natasha fumed.  Unwisely Clint smiled at the remark, earning a death glare in return.  He couldn’t help it, when she put it that way it just sounded hilarious, like something straight out of a comic book.  
  
“I’ve actually been giving that some thought while you’ve been gone,” he said after quickly hiding his mirth.  She looked at him sceptically.  “Things can’t go back to how they were before, Tash.  We can try all we want, but everything changed that day.”  She didn’t look pleased with his words but he had her attention so he pressed on.  “If you’ll hear me out, I have a proposition for you.”  
  
Most people she wouldn’t listen to, but then most people wouldn’t have dared to interrupt her while she was shooting nor talk to her while she was angry for fear of their lives.  Clint was one of the few people that could get away with it and he was well aware of this fact.  She nodded her consent.  
  
“SHIELD has been good to both of us, but since we can’t go back maybe it’s time we move on,” he stated.    
  
“Are you suggesting I resign?” she asked slowly, causing Clint to hesitate before forcing himself to continue.  
  
“No, I’m just saying we take a leave of absence and try it out,” he said.  When she didn’t cut in he took it as encouragement to continue.  If she thought the idea was stupid she wouldn’t have hesitated to interrupt and tell him so.  “The world isn’t gonna need saving all the time, but there are plenty of other things the Avengers could do to protect the city on a daily basis.”  
  
A long silence fell between them as Natasha contemplated his words.  It was an option she hadn’t considered; he had brought her in to SHIELD and the idea of leaving under any circumstances had simply never crossed her mind.  Of course she had many questions, but one stood out above the rest.  
  
“We?” she queried, finally breaking the silence, her eyes searching his.  “You are a sniper, Clint, people don’t have to see you.  You can easily stay.”  
  
“And let you go play super hero without me?  Fat chance,” he replied with a grin.  “Besides, we’re partners, right?  We’re supposed to have each other’s’ backs.”  
  
That much was true, and the one person Clint trusted above all others was Natasha, but she knew there was more to it than that.  Nothing had been the same for Clint since the Loki incident.  It wasn’t just the psych evaluations, the limited clearance and the inferior missions, but the attitudes of his fellow agents and how they had changed toward him.  Everyone knew he hadn’t been in control, that the god had been pulling the strings, but that didn’t change the fact that Barton had killed their friends and coworkers, or has at least led the men who did, and that was hard to look past.  Not only that, but while some still resented him there were others who feared him now.  He had always been an exceptional agent, but none of them had realised just how efficient and deadly he truly was until he was pitted against them.  He had almost singlehandedly taken down the helicarrier with all of them aboard, a fact that wasn’t easy to forget.    
  
She realised things couldn’t go back to how they had been before for him just as much as her.  More than that, she could see that he needed this, time away to build something new if he was ever going to finish healing.  
  
“If we do this…” she started, and seeing the spark of hope in his eyes made her decision for her.  She knew at that moment that there was no ‘if’.  “…what happens if it doesn’t work out?”  
  
Clint thought about it a moment and then gave a shrug.  “We come back here, or maybe we move on elsewhere.  We can figure that out if it comes to it.”  
  
His complete lack of concern over it could have been irritating, but Natasha found a slight smile curling up the corner of her lips.  It was his constant use of ‘we’ that set her at ease, the promise that no matter what happened she wouldn’t be alone again, that no matter what they came upon they would face it together.  Together they might not have been invincible, but they were damn near close.  
  
“Okay…” she said, and the way his face lit up made her heart swell.  “…we can _try_ it.”  She gave him a pointed look as she stressed ‘try’.    
  
“Of course, that’s all I’m saying,” Clint replied, holding his hands up, palms out, in a surrendering gesture.    
  
Giving him a playfully suspicious look, Natasha retrieved her gun and returned it to its holster before gathering the personal protective equipment and starting toward the door.  “Come on, let’s go run it by Fury while the mission failure is still fresh in his mind.”  
  
There was still a hint of bitterness in her tone when she spoke of it, but not the murderous aggravation she had felt not long ago.  Once again Clint had offered her a choice when her future looked uncertain and while she wasn’t one hundred percent sold on the idea, she did appreciate the offer.  
  
“This is gonna be great, Nat, you’ll see,” Clint replied, actually sounding excited about something for the first time in months.  Slinging his arm around her shoulders as they walked, she dropped off her goggles and earmuffs before winding her arm loosely around his waist.  “Maybe we should get masks, whaddya think?  Or if we’re gonna be full time superheroes, maybe we need full on costumes!”  
  
Her “No.” was direct, forceful and left no room for argument, but when Clint laughed loudly and freely she couldn’t help but smile.  It was the first she had heard him laugh, truly laugh, since before Loki.  
  
No matter what happened, no matter where this new path led them, she knew it would be worth it.


End file.
